Chapter 8 #2
Nikki looked around the room, their eyes catching on one of the throw pillows sitting innocently on the couch.
Victim acquired. Mostly because the pillow couldn’t fight back.
Grabbing the pillow with the little gold fringe, Nikki pulled a simple desk chair into the middle of the room and placed the pillow on the chair.
Excited energy zipped through Nikki as they snatched up the ingredients and moved several feet away.
They weren’t quite sure what this would look like with a pillow, but they thought there might be a new stiffness or rigidity to its fluffy features.
Or at least the fringe wouldn’t move when they blew on it.
Regardless, this was a good experiment.
Nikki mashed a sprinkling of moonlight into the plants and called on energy from their core.
It buzzed and tingled, practically leaping to do Nikki’s bidding.
Which was odd; Nikki felt like there should be something to direct it, instead of magic just coming out of their fingertips, but okay.
If the magic wanted to be all feisty and shit, Nikki would roll with it.
They infused the energy into the elements and threw it as hard as they could at the pillow.
It exploded.
That was bad.
A loud boom, like a sharp pop of noise, filled the room and Nikki’s ears. The stench of burned fabric followed in a close second, assaulting Nikki’s nose. The explosion didn’t put off much heat, fortunately—they didn’t think anything else would catch on fire. Maybe?
Excitement gave way to immediate panic, as the little pillow was no longer in this world. It was now a cloud of black smoke and singed feathers blown in every direction. Even the wood chair was now in splinters, looking like a giant had stepped on it.
Nikki’s desperate hope the explosion hadn’t been that loud was crushed when their door was thrown open by Gunter. The dragon’s hair was a mess and his glasses askew. He wore only a pair of soft sleep pants, revealing a lovely chest, but Nikki didn’t have the chance to ogle for long.
“What the hell happened?” Gunter demanded.
Nikki cringed. “Well—” Their explanation was immediately cut off by a round of hacking coughs. They hadn’t even thought of the smoke they’d breathed in.
Gunter didn’t hesitate. He swooped over and scooped Nikki up, carrying them out to the hall. Depositing them out of danger, Gunter returned to the chambers. Nikki rushed after them and stood in the doorway, watching as Gunter threw open all the windows to let the smoke out.
With the room airing properly, Gunter returned to the doorway. “What were you thinking?”
“I wanted to try a stun spell from the primer Lisette gave me,” Nikki admitted with a wince.
Okay, maybe that hadn’t been oleander. Nikki made a mental note to visit in the daytime and get Tori to properly explain all the plants.
They still wanted to use that spell, but maybe with less destruction of innocent pillows.
They started to explain more but the pounding of feet down the hall drew their attention to the approach of a worried Baldewin.
Gunter sighed. “Baldewin and Tori have the room above yours.”
Baldewin reached them, looking around frantically. “What happened? I thought I heard a loud boom.”
“Everything is fine. Just a little accident,” Gunter said easily. Nikki could only stare open-mouthed at the dragon. He was covering for Nikki.
“But there’s smoke.” Baldewin pointed toward the haze that lingered in the room.
“It’s fine. I’ve taken care of it. Just an accident. Go back to bed. We’re all safe.”
Baldewin narrowed his eyes at Gunter, not seeming to believe him, and then looked at Nikki.
Nikki pasted the biggest smile on their lips and nodded, trying to look reassuring, while their heart still attempted to climb free of their chest.
In the end, the large dragon shook his head and sighed before he turned on his heel to return to his own chambers and his mate.
When they were alone again, Nikki looked up at Gunter, expecting a very loud and angry lecture. Not that they didn’t deserve it completely. This really was on Nikki’s head, as they should have double-checked the plant first.
“Nikki, no,” Gunter said gently. “I’m not angry. Just worried about your safety. Why don’t you tell me what you were doing?”
“It was a simple stun spell.” Nikki slipped around Gunter and darted back into the room.
They picked up the primer that had gotten blown to the floor and showed the dragon the spell.
Gunter read it over and then looked at the scorch mark on the carpet where the pillow and chair had been.
Nikki pulled out their drawing, wanting to double-check the plants once more.
“You used cow parsley and oleander?”
“Yes. I just got them from the greenhouse.”
Gunter approached the table and picked up a leaf of cow parsley. “This?”
“Yes, that’s cow parsley.”
Gunter closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The muscles in his jaw jumped like he was clenching his teeth, or maybe just composing himself. Nikki tensed, waiting for yet another explosion of their making. But it didn’t happen.
Instead, Gunter’s hand shot out and grabbed Nikki’s wrist. In a blink, they were slammed against Gunter’s chest, the dragon’s rapidly beating heart pounding against their temple. Arms locked like iron bands around them.
“What?” Nikki said, voice muffled against Gunter’s warm skin. This rather unexpected hug felt more like a protective embrace than anything gentler.
“That was not cow parsley, Nikki. It’s hemlock. Their leaves are similar, but hemlock is more feathery and can be identified by its glossy sheen, which you wouldn’t have really seen in a dark greenhouse. If you had used a tiny bit more, you could have been killed.”
“Oh,” Nikki murmured, their own arms tightening around Gunter. That would have been really bad. And here they thought it was the oleander they’d screwed up.
“Please promise me something,” Gunter said into their hair, his voice surprisingly rough.
“What?”
“No more spells until you’ve had a few lessons with Tori. You’re skilled and powerful, but if you’re not careful, you could be seriously hurt. I—we can’t lose you.”
Nikki was glad they were smashed against Gunter because they could not stop their enormous grin. “I promise, Gunter. No more spells without some help.”
Some of the tension eased from Gunter’s frame and he released Nikki, which kind of sucked but was understandable. The poor dragon was exhausted and had just been scared from his sleep.
“I’m sorry I woke you. Go back to sleep. I promise to be good,” Nikki said, patting Gunter’s arm.
The dragon looked around the room, his frown deepening. “This won’t do. There’s still too much smoke.” With a final nod, Gunter bent and ushered Nikki back into the hallway. “You’re sleeping in my room until we can get this properly aired out and cleaned.”
Nikki was completely unharmed.
Nikki did not need to be escorted anywhere.
But Nikki kept their damn mouth shut. Gunter was feeling protective, and Nikki was going to wallow in it while they could.
They could docilely follow Gunter into his room, hiding a smile as they went.
This kind of “punishment” was not helping to teach them a lesson about casting spells without supervision.
Not when the result put them exactly where they wanted to be.
But they’d been serious. They didn’t want to do anything to scare Gunter like that again.
For tonight, at least, Nikki could be good.